Blood Moon
by chasingmymuse
Summary: Bella, Jasper and Rosalie are members of the Volturi clan. But when Jasper runs off with one of the Cullens, this prompts a chain of events that has them questioning everything they once believed in. AU, canon cples. Rated M for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Twilight doesn't belong to me. **

**This is my first fanfic, so please be kind. **

Swathed in thick, dark grey robes that fanned out in a pool where he knelt, the vampire cowered under the concentrated blast of Caius's fury.

"Incompetent fool!" he spat, venom-spittle flying from his mouth. "Not only did you fail in your mission, you have also allowed Jasper Whitlock to betray you and escape."

"And now you tell us," he swooped forward and wrenched up the guard's head by his hair, "that you can't find him. Tracker, forsooth!"

"I'm sorry, Master," Demetri whimpered brokenly. "I tried, but he.."

Caius snarled, lifting a bony hand to strike.

The force of the Ancient's blow smashed the snivelling immortal's face to the marble floor. Jagged cracks radiated from the point of contact, like an avant-garde artist's depiction of a spider web.

I peered into the room, through a tiny chink between the brick and plaster of the wall, getting a lovely front view of Caius's histrionics.

Well, though Jane and Felix seemed to be getting a kick out of the entertainment that Caius so readily dished out, Aro definitely looked pained at his partner's antics. His own methods of extracting information were far more subtle. And absolutely more effective.

As I watched, Aro shook his head infinitesimally and descended the three steps of the dais, leaving Marcus—who as always, was a study in eternal ennui—seated in one of the three ornately carved ebony thrones as he drifted towards his "brother".

"You are being wasteful of time and energy—not to mention valuable marble," chided Aro in his gentle, mellifluous voice. "Let me try." His saintly, patient tones were a stark contrast to Caius's furious growls.

As Felix hauled Demetri to his feet, my fists clenched reflexively into balls. _Jasper, I hope for your sake that you know what you are doing. What you__ have__ done._

To my great frustration, Aro turned around as he faced Demetri. Now all I could see was Demetri's fright-filled visage and Aro's black, silk-robed back.

As I watched, Aro's back stiffened. This, and the length of time he held onto Demetri's hand, told me everything I needed to know, everything that I was missing out on.

As if somehow sensing my thoughts, Aro abruptly dropped Demetri's hand, and in one fluid movement, backhanded him into a marble column which nearly snapped into two. He curled into a ball, whimpering.

Felix, Jane, and Caius gaped at Aro, beyond shocked at his behaviour. Though I hadn't been around for that long, I was willing to bet all my worldly goods on them having never witnessed Aro losing his control so spectacularly.

"You are quite warranted in your anger, brother," Aro's tones were cold and clipped; tightly controlled, I'm sure, to prevent himself from screaming. "Jasper has outwitted us all." He turned, and I glimpsed his lips twist. "He—or someone we know nothing of—has completely wiped out all traces of their mission from Demetri's mind, and thus everything that may or may not have transpired. Never mind tracking—stringing simple words in a sentence may prove far too taxing for him." He gestured contemptuously in Demetri's general direction.

_What?_

The listener's faces jaws dropped to such an extent that they were danger of hitting the floor. Someone had actually managed to get the better of Aro's nearly omniscient gift? Today was a day of firsts for the Volturi clan.

"Where is Rosalie?" demanded Caius, trying to take control of events, since Aro was still fuming. _Funny, he wasn't so bent out of shape the last time his powers were thwarted—_

"She's with Heidi, Master," Felix answered. They'll be back soon, from _fishing._" He imbued the last word with a darkly macabre twist, teeth flashing in anticipation."

"Where's Bella?"

At the mention of my name, I turned and ran, as fast as I could while being absolutely quiet. I wasn't going to stick around for Felix to find me kneeling on the floor outside the very room he just left.

As I ran, I prayed. I prayed for me to reach my room before Felix, and for Rosalie to stay calm in the face of both Aro's and Caius's wrath.

I had a feeling I would be saying many more prayers before this was over.

**Thank you for reading! Any feedback—positive or negative—will be greatly appreciated. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews and alerts! And thank you, Leelan Oleander for beta-ing this monster, holding my hand and catching all my very, very stupid mistakes. **

**Twilight isn't mine. **

I fled through the passages, in a panic, to get away from the scene before I was caught eavesdropping. My pale grey robes flared out behind me as the milky-veined marble walls flashing past me turned to undressed dull gray stone—my route took me through dank underground tunnels that went on for miles. I _had_ to avoid running into any of my brethren who would doubtless be heading to where I had just left.

I ran up a winding flight of stairs and entered the brightly illuminated lobby area. I breathed more easily now; no vampire would enter from this area except Heidi and Rosalie, and when they did, it would be obvious.

The lobby area was covered with marble too, an expansive—and expensive—carpet covering a portion of it. It was complemented by the bright Tuscan landscapes on the walls that looked so realistic that humans often mistook them for windows. Vases on plinths held blooms about the size of my outstretched palms, their scent permeating every corner of the room. But they weren't strong enough to mask the scent of the human at the desk, who called out a polite greeting to me.

As I shut the iron door behind me with a clang, her water-lily scent hit the back of my throat like an army of scorpions. It was masked partially by the foul perfume in which she doused herself in daily, most probably to prevent us blood-thirsty vampires from wrenching her neck to the side and plunging her our teeth into her rapidly pulsing vein…

Which was beating even faster now, thanks to my dark, almost-black-burgundy eyes being fixated on it. Her adrenaline spiked, and as I tore my eyes away from her neck, I noticed the fearful expression in her green eyes and her knuckles, bone-white from gripping the mahogany countertop. _So she wasn't as blasé as she appeared_, I thought, cackling to myself.

I realized I was standing stock still in the middle of the lobby like a statue, and exited the room as quickly as possible. Aro would not be happy if I happened to kill the receptionist just before the feeding.

I took the stairs five at a time, since there was no sight, nor smell of life close by.

As I scaled the innumerable flights of stairs, I wondered if Gianna ever regretted Aro having chosen her as the part of the human façade that the Volturi had assiduously cultivated over the years to hide from mortal scrutiny. What she knew offered her only two paths—immortality or death.

And the choice wasn't really hers to make. If Aro thought she wasn't fitting, she would join the prey Rosalie and Heidi herded into the "banquet" hall, and no one but us would be wiser to the fate of Gianna Fassati.

My own induction into the Volturi ranks was purely involuntary; my stay in Italy gone tragically awry. It was on a visit to Volterra, on St. Marcus's Day, in the middle of my twentieth year when the cab I was in crashed.

After that, the last memory of my human life was the pain of the venom searing my veins.

Even though my human memories were part of my irretrievable past, I clung on to them with the intensity of a toddler clinging on to her stuffed bunny. I wanted to remember my parents—my childish, adorable mother despairing over her latest misadventure; my quiet, retiring father who terrified any boy who dared to ask me out. I wanted to remember how happy they had been for me when I had got into Julliard's exclusive piano course, how proud they were when I had been granted a scholarship in an affiliated college in Rome.

Suddenly a fierce barb of envy pierced me, of stupid Gianna who would gladly slash her wrists if it would grant her immortality. What did she know of leaving ones' family behind forever for living in a mire filled with spiteful, backstabbing vipers? Did she really want to be one of the red-eyed monsters who tore open the necks of humans and drained them dry?

My inner monologue stopped abruptly when I reached my destination.

Many flights above the lobby were the location of our quarters. Very luxurious ones they were, but as the youngest additions to the Volturi, I had to share with Rosalie and Jasper, the resident experts on dealing with a bloodthirsty newborn—which I most certainly was back then.

Four years after my change, I was as disciplined as Heidi or Rose—who spent extended periods of time in close proximity with humans—but since Aro could not read my mind, I wasn't to be trusted. I had to be supervised by someone who did have some inkling about my emotional reactions. Jasper's talent was among the few that managed to affect me.

Despite—or probably due to—the fact that he and his sister were basically babysitting an extremely volatile and furious newborn who wanted nothing than to lash out the very ones who had saved her, the three of us formed a strong bond. I was surprised by how well I managed to fit into Rosalie's and Jasper's life, since as time went on, I found out that vampires, even this extremely united coven, were very solitary and distrustful creatures who didn't take well to newcomers.

There were exceptions, though, besides Rose and Jasper. Which is why I wasn't standing outside my own door, but outside Chelsea's.

I knocked once on the carved ebony door and entered the room without waiting for a reply.

The room that I stepped into had no marble, and I welcomed its absence. The floor was instead covered with pale wood, interlocked panels set an intriguing jigsaw that spanned the entire floor. The pale blue tones of the walls exuded soothing vibes, and upon them hung a few of Afton's more inspired abstracts. The whole room was so unlike Rose's, whose taste leaned towards morbid shades like blood red. Add to that Jasper's werewolf pelts mounted on the walls—well, Chelsea's room, in contrast to _that_ was a veritable haven.

Chelsea's ash-blond head was bent over a thick volume that she held cradled in her hands carefully to keep the spine from splitting, and I instantly recognized the familiar illustration. Why had she borrowed Jasper's copy of the Mahabharata?

She was so engrossed in the epic poem that only when I cleared my throat—very loudly—did she bother to acknowledge my presence.

I took in her irritated face and immediately had second thoughts. It wasn't that I didn't trust her. Her talent, stripping away and binding loyalties was her way of keeping the guard together, and not at each others' throats, could have also have left me friendless and alone.

In our hierarchy, she stood as many ranks above me as a major did in relation to a private. But unlike Jane, who took immense glee in exerting her authority, Chelsea never flaunted her exalted status around me. Maybe it was the fact that her didn't affect me in the slightest.

A strange reason for friendship, but I wasn't complaining. It was the same thing that brought me closer to Rosalie—and also the same reason why Jane hated me.

But did I want to drag someone else into this already tangled web of intrigue and deceit? I would not only implicate her, but her mate, Afton. But as a friend of Rosalie and Jasper, I would want to know too, if our positions had been reversed.

As I deliberated, her gaze grew even more annoyed. With a huff, she rolled her eyes and began to open the book again.

"Jasper," I blurted out. Her head popped back up, her face frozen into shock. Then she exploded into action.

"He's returned then?" she snapped, dropping the book on a table. "Well, shouldn't you have told me earlier, Bella? Making Aro wait…not the best course of action." While she had been saying this, she had gone in one of the inner rooms and come out, haphazardly pulling on her dark grey robes over her street clothes.

"No! Don't go anywhere!" I finally got in, breaking all activity. She stared at me and slumped into the sofa.

"Then what?"

I swallowed and gave her the condensed version of the whole sorry saga.

By the time I had finished, her expression was a mix of shock and awe. The front of her robes hung open, the fastenings momentarily forgotten.

"What really bugs me is that I don't even _know_ what the mission was in the first place. Caius's tantrums flare up with depressing regularity, but Aro…" I shuddered, remembering the viciousness of his anger. " I thought you said you've never seen him lose control, ever…what _could _have happened?" I looked at her desperately, hoping for answers. Surely she knew…

Chelsea chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. "It would be completely typical of the old bastards," she said, finally. "Centuries of virtual omniscience and unchallenged authority has made them—especially Aro—disgustingly complacent, so what's happened now has really upset the apple-cart, so to speak." She looked strangely pleased.

_I am going to completely ignore that miserable attempt to change the topic, _I thought.

"That didn't really answer the question."

Chelsea's stare grew expressionless. "You know full well that if you don't know, then you're not supposed to know," she shot back.

"I _do _want to know," I stated, more than asked. It wasn't a request. I wouldn't endanger her at the cost of my curiosity, though my questions burned within me, demanding answers.

She wrung her hands nervously. The last time Aro caught one of the guards giving out classified information, Jane had a field day punishing them. That creepy little monster had a sadistic streak the size of the Grand Canyon, and if I could sleep, I would have had enough nightmares to leave me sleepless for a month.

I shuddered at the memory of Yuri rolling around on the floor, yelling about the claws shredding his insides to pieces. Jane's power to simulate any kind of pain and inflict it mercilessly was seriously unnerving.

Chelsea came to a decision abruptly.

"Well, if you can manage to keep your mouth shut…" She gave me a threatening look. "Since Aro cannot touch your mind, and will not touch my hand, we _should_ be safe."

"Why won't—"

"Another time, Bella," Chelsea interrupted. "Aro got some very interesting information from a certain vampire called Peter when he came to visit Jasper."

A picture of an extremely tall, lanky vampire with white-blond hair darted into my mind. He had come to Volterra, with his mate Charlotte.

"Well, when he went to greet Aro, he shook his hand."

I whistled through my teeth. He had unwittingly granted Aro access to his entire life history.

"Aro was very excited over some of his memories. It involved a certain coven based in the United States. Their leader knows Aro well—he spent a few decades in the seventeenth century here before he left here. Carlisle Cullen is the name he went by then—he started using it again in the last few years."

I waited with trepidation for her to continue. The only thing that excited Aro was power. Oh, and the prospect of getting more power. Finding a long-lost friend would never elicit that kind of reaction from him.

"This Carlisle is strange. Unlike the rest of us immortals, he doesn't kill humans for food. He drinks _animal_ blood." She made a moue of distaste.

"Ew."

"I know. Anyway, over the last century, he has been forming a coven of vampires who preach pacifism and non-violence towards humans just like him. That wouldn't normally be a problem with Aro—he always liked Carlisle—but there are some _very_ talented individuals in his coven whom Aro would gladly give half the guard to get his hands on. One of them can actually _see_ the future. From what Aro was raving about, she—her name is Alice—can accurately predict everything from the weather to the stock market." She let the statement sink in.

"Even though Carlisle is an eternal pacifist, Aro will not stand that he has something that he covets. It is somewhat like how it is in that," her head nodded towards the _Mahabharata_ sitting on the table. _"What man of mettle in this world will have patience when his rivals prosper?"_ she quoted from memory.

"Envy is one of the driving forces in the poem, and the same goes for Aro." She shook her head in disgust. "Although he has an undefeatable guard, he worries most that someone will rise up to unseat him. When he ordered us to destroy the Romanian coven, when we battled across southern United States, it wasn't just to 'protect' us from exposure: it was to quell all those who were ambitious. He fears that more than anything." Her voice grew grave.

"_That _is why Jasper's situation so complicated. Not only has he deprived of Aro of his would-be prize jewel, he has started something that could balloon into a _real_ problem. For himself."

_What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Jasper! _

I felt like hitting my head against the wall, but I didn't feel like leaving divots in Chelsea's nice blue room.

"So…moving on," Chelsea continued calmly, as if she hadn't just been dropping bombs on me like the Luftwaffe, "what's happened to Demetri…have you ever witnessed the like of it before?"

"_No_," I answered emphatically. It wasn't something I would forget easily.

"Of course you have!" Chelsea urged. "_Think_."

I stared back at her, beyond confused. I'd never seen the like before, vampire acting like he lost more brain cells than he could afford to. We've never had mentally challenged individuals among vampires like the humans did. When did I see humans acting like Demetri, anyway?

The answer came back faster than Google on its best day, in all its in high-definition, Technicolour glory.

_Shrieks echoed around from all sides as we surrounded the humans…they ran in all directions like chickens about to be slaughtered …panicking…screaming as they died…_

_And at the side, another set of humans stood stupidly in one place, just watching the bloodbath with horrified eyes, but acting they were incapable of movement. Like they were struck dumb. _

Only Rosalie's prey acted like this.

Aro words, _Never mind tracking—stringing simple words in a sentence may prove far too taxing for him, _floated through my feverishly working brain.

Rosalie.

Oh my God.

"So Rosalie wiped Demetri's mind?" I shrieked. "I thought her power only worked on humans!"

"I thought so too," Chelsea answered, her forehead knotting into a frown. "But the result is the same. She had to bend his will to wipe his memory, and doing so, she broke his mind. She must have found him while she was fishing today, before he could come back and inform Aro and Caius."

My throat felt tight, and forcing words out of it was a struggle.

"So this means that..."

"…she's gone to join Jasper…" she finished.

Grief overwhelmed me. "Why does it feel that all my friends are abandoning me? They've just signed their death warrant."

She tilted her head to the side. "How so? Now that Demetri is gone, they have the whole world to hide in. And if that foresighted female is with them, then they'll be able to see when Aro sends in the cavalry, so they'll always be able to run. If they want to."

"Lucky them, then," I muttered, still feeling discarded and forgotten. Freedom, without spies and enemies around them, surrounded by peace-loving, animal-blood-drinking vampires…I was abruptly jealous.

"Why only lucky them? It could be lucky you too, you know..." Chelsea said carefully, looking away from me.

I stared at her, uncomprehending for exactly a quarter of a second. Then it clicked.

"You mean I could just waltz out? Just like that? Just follow them anywhere...without knowing where they are...without a passport, no identification...nothing..." my voice trailed off into incredulous splutters.

Chelsea shrugged. "Or you could stay, and face Aro's wrath. Not to mention Caius's. Though Jane can't touch you, I needn't point out Caius's _modus operandi_ when it comes to dealing with those whom he considers traitors."

I had a brief image of myself kneeling on that cracked marble floor, pinioned into immobility by Corin and Felix, while Aro glided towards me, hands extended to grip my....

I roused myself from my morbid daydream. "That's ridiculous and you know it! I knew nothing of the mission to start with, so that would be a complete waste of time---"

The door burst open—literally. The door was blasted from its frame, chunks and splinters of wood whizzing past us and embedding themselves into the nice blue walls I had hesitated to mark earlier.

In what used to be the doorway, Jane stood, smiling that cherub-sweet smile, the one she invariably wore before she attacked.

Clearly, she wasn't here to pay to us a social call.

As I stared stupidly at her, the shadows coalesced by her side separated into two twin hulking forms. Felix and Corin.

_Three against two? Totally not fair. _

To show how unfair I thought those odds were, I turned and jumped out of Chelsea's window. The glass put up a token resistance, and it shivered into a million pieces with a melodic tinkling as I smashed through it and hurtled towards the ground, pale grey robes blooming parachute-style as I fell.

_Sorry, Chelsea. I hope Aro doesn't kill you, and that you'll get the chance to redecorate eventually. I'll miss you._

**A/N : The Mahabharata is an Sanskrit epic poem spanning around 100,000 verses. The Hindus' holy book, the Bhagvad Gita, comprises of one of its volumes. Mahabharata in the same league as The Illiad and Odyssey, but only much, much longer :-) **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Twilight is doesn't belong to me. **

**A/N: I'm sorry. I meant to update much sooner, but I had been really busy, and anyway had really limited access to a computer with internet access. **

**Thank you, Leelan, for being the ever-vigilant beta. What would I ever do without you? **

**Not a very long chapter, but nevertheless important. **

I stood in the middle of an idyllic Tuscany forest, dumbstruck.

Some tracker I had turned out to be.

Following Rosalie's scent was proving slightly more difficult than throwing off Jane and her cronies. Exiting Volterra had been a cinch, but crawling through its antiquated sewer system had seriously traumatized my delicate sense of smell. My cloak stank as though it had been trampled by a herd of unwashed pigs.

So, after I poked open a manhole cover and started sniffing around somewhere outside the city walls, I followed the trail of Rosalie's orange-blossom scent deep into the countryside. As the craggy cliffs of Volterra gave way to thick foliage, I was on my guard; the hood pulled tightly over my head, blocking the sun's rays.

I cursed the fact that dawn had arrived way before I did, thus severely curtailing my speed. Rose had been luckier; it had been dark when this whole Demetri fiasco had occurred. She would have had ample time to set her false trails and lead anyone who followed her in a merry dance throughout the countryside.

So, like all false trails, it came to a dead stop. In this case, it was by a babbling brook in the middle of nowhere. The lush green forest was rich with earthy scents of soil, cypress and woodland wildlife. Not a single whiff of any citrus anywhere in the vicinity.

Concentrating, I took myself three years back, when Jasper and Rosalie had given me a strictly unofficial lesson on losing one's scent.

During a feeding, I had accidentally killed a child—a child who wasn't even supposed to be there.

After the bloodlust had waned, I had been crushed with misery and guilt. To take my mind off the horror of my deed, he and Rosalie dragged me off to Volterra's boundaries and taught me how to play hide-and-seek, vampire style.

_To lose your scent, _Rosalie had lectured_, is not an easy process. This is because our scent clings to almost everything around us. __ The only way to lose it is to immerse yourself into something that smells markedly worse than you. _

It was obvious that she masked her trail by wading into the water. Water, especially running water because it tends to pick up other smelly stuff along its course, had that effect on the scent. I knelt on the leafy forest floor and sniffed the water.

I recoiled_. Yup, stinky animal…waste_. It was so strong, it managed to block out the scent of any other stuff that may have been in the brook.

So, assuming she went into the smelly brook and followed it downstream…since the brook cut diagonally across the path she used…that meant she waded until it became too deep and started swimming….

_Well, I could use another stink bath—God forbid the other one wear off too soon. _

I waded downstream. The rushing water soaked the skirts of the robes, slowing me down. I sped up, trying to make up ground—water in this case. I did not want to make it easier for anyone to catch me.

_For all our vampire intellect, you are one stupid chick—you are wasting valuable getaway time…you could have been off the mainland and on your way to—where exactly? Since you don't even know _where_ this mysterious coven is located? _

I continued grumbling in my head for quite some time. The fact that I had not fed for around two weeks now did not improve my mood, and it was lucky that no early-morning hunters had opted to greet the dawn.

Leaving a drained corpse behind would be worse than erecting a huge signpost pointed directly at me.

As I floated, the brook grew wider and deeper. Though the forest was devoid of human presence, I could faintly smell traces of freshly turned earth and pressed grapes, indications of vineyards and cultivated land. If I went any further, I would reach human civilization.

I stepped out of the water, disgusted. _Wild goose chase much?_

I walked swiftly away from the river banks. I wasn't sure what I would do now, but I wasn't going to waste anytime pretending to be flotsam.

The scent of smelly brook water didn't go away, even as I strode. It wasn't coming from me, but from the air and soil before me.

Besides the stink, I smelled something else. A faint bouquet of orange blossoms.

My lips curved up in a triumphant grin. _Clever Rose._

I started to run. As the hood fell off my face, the light filtering through the leaves shattered off my prism-like skin into tiny rainbows.

The sun ascended, on its leisurely course to the zenith. As the scent grew stronger, I sped up, my feet making no sound on the leaf-strewn ground. My intuition itched with certainty; I was on the right track.

I stopped abruptly. Unless I was very much mistaken, the scent made it's way…up?

I looked up. All around me were olive and cypress trees, but then…_aha._

A lone orange tree, white flowers in full bloom, stood in a clump of olive trees, looking conspicuously out of place.

As I went up it, Rose's scent, mingled with the actual orange blossom fragrance, hit me. As I reached the top of the trunk where it branched out into boughs, I found a tiny slip of paper embellished with the distinctive Volturi "V" wedged into a crevice.

I grabbed it and smoothed it out.

On it was a single word, spelled out in Rosalie's curly cursive.

_Forks._

I crushed the paper in my hand, reducing it to powder.

_Shit. _

**A/N : If people are still reading this story and not given it up as a bad job, I beg you to review. I would really love to hear from anyone and everyone who reads it….so, please….review :) **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N : Yeah, I know. It's been ages since I last updated. I'm really sorry. If anyone is still reading this story, you've definitely got way more patience than I have. I agonized a lot over this chapter-I wrote it from angle, then just before I uploaded decided I wanted it another way, and then got submerged in a deluge of unwanted and unexpected work. **

**My heartfelt thanks to Leelan for beta'ing this chapter, and industriously weeding through all my silly mistakes. Without her, it wouldn't have been half as nice as it is now. **

**Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. It's from another POV, so introducing (drum roll please)...  
**

**Rosalie POV**

It was a good day, I decided. Even though from where I lay on my back, the sky was overcast, as it was perennially in Forks. A blanket of slate-grey clouds hung heavily over us, although periodically gleams of sunlight did peek in through the gaps in the forest canopy, much like they would through the holes of a parasol.

One particular sunbeam, apparently bolder than the others, cast its faint light on the dark spikes of the undergrowth, from which little tendrils of steam uncoiled with the tiniest of hissing noises. It also illuminated a very big and very unashamed vampire. Unashamed because, besides his insufferably large grin, he wore nothing else.

"Emmett," I groaned. "Please cover yourself."

His grinning expression melted into one of faux pain. "Rosie, I don't remember you finding my body that repulsive a few minutes ago. In fact-"

"I do not find your naked body unpleasing in the least," I interrupted, rolling my eyes. "It's _that._"

He followed the line of my imperiously outstretched finger, which pointed at sunbeam, which seemed to trying to replicate a tenth grade prism experiment on his—

"It's _sparkling_," I told him, horrified.

"I know, but—"

"If you think that I'm going to allow anything that _sparkles_ near my body, let alone inside it, that—and you—are going to be very, very disappointed in the very near future." I punctuated this statement with a threatening glare.

He made a sour face and rolled over. "There. Better now?"

"It's shining on your bum now."

He sat up with a fluid motion, the sunbeam thankfully lodging itself in his non-refractory hair. "What gives?"

"I fail to follow your meaning," I answered in the prissiest manner that I could summon up.

"You've been acting…funny…all afternoon. As far as I could make out, you were pretty fine last night and most of the morning. Then after you and Alice came back from shopping, you've been brooding non-stop."

"I did not brood non-stop," I snapped defensively, folding my arms across my bare chest.

"Okay, you had your moments," he conceded. "A few. The rest of the time you acted like you wanted to break something, and you have every chance you got. Like the tree branches that committed the grave sin of being in your way. Like the cougar's collar bone you broke, spraying blood all over your new outfit. Remember those?"

I should have known better than to hide from Emmett. He was my mate after all, even if he'd known me only for a few weeks now.

I sighed gustily, and very uncharacteristically dropped my defensive act and decided to confess.

"When we were in town, outside the grocery store, we had an…unexpected…meeting."

He waited while I paused, trying to control the melancholy that flooded me now.

_This is ridiculous, Alice," I sniffed, leaning against the silver Volvo whose keys that Edward had reluctantly handed over. "Why are you buying so much food? Especially the whole-wheat pasta, the olive oil and the chocolate? Need I point out that we will be eating nothing from what we've bought?" _

"_Appearances are everything," said Alice in an irritating, sing-song voice from the interior of the trunk. She finished stowing the last carton of soy milk and straightened up, making a few minuscule adjustments to her fitted green silk blouse._

_As she slammed the door of the boot, the shop door swung upon, bringing with a rich smell of rowan trees and coffee mixed in with the almost-irresistible human scent. It was emanating from the bulky form of the police chief as he walked briskly to his car, cradling what seemed to be many, many six-packs of Rainer._

"_What's up, Charlie?," Alice had called out cheerily. "Big game on, huh?"_

_He started at the sound of his name, and stopped. As Alice smiled at him dazzlingly, he shifted uncomfortably, the cans clinking together metallically in the brown tote._

"_No, not really," he said uneasily, darting a look at the cruiser parked a few yards away._

"_Then what's the occasion?" demanded Alice lightly, gesturing at the heavy bag. _

"_It's my daughter's um…birthday," he got out quietly, not looking at Alice. "She would have been twenty-six today, you know…not that much older than you two."_

"_I'm sorry, Charlie," Alice said, sounding distressed for some reason. "Rosalie..." _

_He didn't pay any heed to Alice's panicked words. "Even though it's been a while, I miss her so much. She spent four years here, at that same school you go to now…a good, quiet girl, Bella was…"_

_I started at the name. "Bella?"_

"_Yes, Rose," Alice said softly. "Chief Swan's daughter." She stressed the name with the subtlest of inflections. _

_I kept my face blank with an effort, forcing away the shocked expression that was threatening to take over my features. Bella's father…here? Bella grew up here? Please let this be a huge, gigantic coincidence…_

"_She had such a bright future," Charlie continued, eyes suspiciously shiny. "She was going to be a famous pianist, until some freak killed her—"_

_It wasn't a coincidence then._

"_Wasn't it an accident?"Alice asked timidly, sounding very unlike herself. _

_Charlie blinked rapidly. His hand passed repeatedly over his face, then reached behind to pull the hood to his jacket over his head._

"_It's going to rain soon," he told us gruffly, turning around to head to the police cruiser. "I felt a few raindrops just now."_

_He dumped his bag in the car, got in, and slammed the door behind himself. The car roared out of the parking lot._

"_Drive carefully," Alice called out. He didn't reply. _

"It was Charlie Swan, Emmett," I said now, jerking myself from my memories. "Bella's father."

His strong features looked confused, and then comprehension lightened his face. "You mean, _your _Bella?"

I momentarily wondered how Bella would react if she heard herself being referred to as mine, but I disregarded it.

"Bella never mentioned where she had come from. I'd never asked her, and she did tell me she only called Forks a sodden speck of a town of little importance."

"So what happens to be the problem?" asked Emmett, frustrated. "So what if she grew up here?"

"I left Bella clues, Emmett! About Forks. All this while not knowing where it was where she actually grew up…where her father still lives!"

"So…"

"_So,_" I mocked, my temper flaring up. "What are we going to do if anyone sees her? She is supposed to be _dead_. What are going to do, take her to school?" I laughed in a brittle fashion, running my hands through my blond mane of hair. Oh God, what a _mess. _

"She can stay in the house," Emmett said calmly.

"That's not the point! What if she decided not to come here? What if Aro had caught up with her after she got hold of the clues and comes here? It'll be my fau—"

"It's not your fault," Emmett interjected angrily, black brows drawing together menacingly. "She—and we—will be _fine. _Do you hear? Alice would have known if something was going wrong."

"Alice is hardly infallible," I grumbled mind flashing back to the scene in the parking lot.

"Not about things like that. If this Volturi are going to come after us, we should have enough of time to scram. And from what you told me, you got rid of their sniffer dog."

I flinched. I never wanted to remember the way I forced Demetri to reveal everything that he was going to tell Aro.

_I had been 'herding' my catch of prey into city boundaries, mentally ordering them to blend in seamlessly with the rest of the late evening tourist crowd when the scent of ice-caps and lichen reached my nostrils. Demetri. _

_I swiveled. What news had he and Jasper brought back?_

_Knowing that my prey would be collected by Heidi once inside the city boundaries, I followed the scent until I found him, leaning up against the rocks that were part of the wall. I frowned when I saw he was alone. Where was Jazz? Had he ditched the asshole to head forward into the city? I was so going to kill him when I got back for making me deal with this scum alone…_

"_Rosalie, Rosalie," he cooed in his voice that inexplicably reminded of an oil slick. "Your brother Jasper has been _such_ a bad boy… _

"_What are you saying?" I sputtered. "Have the drug-tainted prostitutes you've been leeching off finally addle your brain?" What was he up to now? _

"_What will Aro say?" Demetri mused. "Tsk, tsk. One of his most favored guards, a traitor?"_

_I refused to accept it. "My brother is no traitor," I hissed, "and you lie as fluently as you speak Italian." _

"_My memories wont't lie, fairest Rose," he crooned, one crooked finger reaching out to stroke my cheek. I jerked away, tempted to bite it and gnaw it off. _

_He dropped his hand, but his malice-filled expression didn't waver. _

"_And once Aro sees what I have to tell him," he continued in deliberate, measured tones, "Caius's wrath will be a pale, feeble thing to what Aro will unleash upon Jasper and you." He started to laugh mockingly, a callous, uncaring grating that chilled my bones. _

_My outstretched hands grabbed Demetri by the collar and smashed him into the wall with a crash. Dust and cracks emerged as he struggled._

_Before his superior strength could overwhelm me, I fixed him with my gaze until the intense urgency of my need for answers melded with the raw force of my power. _

_He resisted, of course, but my talent for compelling people into compliance had been transmuted into a brutal, merciless weapon to bludgeon Demetri into absolute submission. _

_By the time I had finished, Demetri had slumped against the wall, a dazed, blank expression upon his face. _

_I turned and ran for all I was worth, panic giving me newfound wings. _

"Even without Demetri, they are still formidable," I hissed. "There are a couple of females who are more than competent trackers. Even with all the false trails I set up, it's only a waiting game."

I reached for the knit dress that laid a few meters away and pulled it over my head in sharp, angry motions.

Emmett watched all my preparations with wary eyes, as if I were a keg of dynamite teetering too close to a bonfire. In almost no time at all he was dressed as well; his white shirt untucked, black sweater slung over his shoulder.

"What do you want to do now?" he finally asked.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. There was truly nothing I could think of. After I had told Bella where we were, it would hardly make sense to flee. And the Cullens had a cover to maintain. _Appearance is all. _

I was saved from having to answer by the vibration of my cell phone. I pulled it out and frowned. My number was known only to a select few—Aro _not_ being one of them—and I didn't recognize the number flashing on the screen.

I pressed the button and held the phone to my ear, praying that I hadn't fallen for enemy bait.

"Rose?" a static-crackly voice filled my ears. "Rose, it's Bella here. I'm on the cliffs, and I'm about to get eaten!"

**A/N : Before I forget, thanks to Leelan for the trivia on Charlie's beer. I haven't seen Eclipse yet *pouts* since, for some indiscernable reason, it hasn't come out yet here. Anyone else who's not seen it? **

**Oh, and PLEASE review. I promise I won't keep you hanging this long for the next chapter, since I've got a rough outline in my head already...so about next week, tops. **

**So press that button and let me know what you think!  
**


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